The Flowering Vine: More To The Story

I thought I’d take a second to thank all of the readers who have supported “The Flowering Vine Series.”

Both Ron and I really appreciate your kind comments about our family.

I inserted this picture of our Grandparents, Leroy (Daddy) and Annie (Mother) so that you can see them as they were in later years.

This picture was taken ONE MONTH prior to our Grandfather’s death.

Here’s the story behind the photo.

Basically, my son had just been born a few months prior and something urged me to go visit my Grandparents and take pictures.

While I can’t say that I had a premonition, I can say that I clearly remember my Grandfather saying to me, as he struggled with his cane to rise from his seat, “Whew Bay, Granddaddy can’t haaaardly get around no more.”

Friends, I can’t tell you how much we all miss him. He was one of the kindest people I have EVER known and he sincerely loved us all so much.

I distinctly remember how he would wait until EVERYBODY, including all of his children, their spouses and his grandchildren had eaten before he would eat.

He’d say, “Did everybody eat? Did everybody have enough?”

Then, he’d pile the leftovers along with some home grown tomatoes and peppers into his favorite bowl.

Boy let me tell you! That bowl of food looked so GOOOOOD!

God knows they don’t make them like our Granddaddy anymore.

Frankly, there is so much more that can be said about both of our Grandparents, and, as long as you’re interested, we hope to continue sharing those stories here.

Anyway, below is a family tree that includes some of the people that you all have come to know and love.

Because our story includes so much information about our biracial heritage, I decided to include a bit of a descriptor under each person’s name.

Note: The term “mixed race” applies where there is some interracial heritage but the specifics are unknown. “Recent mixed race” indicates that this person had at least one confirmed white parent.

On a related note, both Ron and I would like to offer a special thanks to two Caucasian cousins who were kind enough to share DNA and Family records in order to help us to confirm information on our Grandfather’s side. Had they not been willing to step forward a few more of these boxes would have been marked “unknown.”

Also, a BIG thanks to Ron’s Mom (Jet) and my Dad (Jim) for sharing their memories.

Now, let me stop rambling!

Here’s the Tree!

The Flowering Vine: Notice that there should be a Mr. H and a Mrs. H (LOL!)

I am still out here lurking about 😜 and reading as many of these wondrous writings as possible. Commenting has been low on the agenda these days with double-caregiving in the blender, and let me say the speed on that is set to high. Hmmmmm. Does that rhyme with YAAAAAASSSSS! OMG that felt good! Perhaps that could be presented as full-fledged mind healing therapy. Bless you and Ron for what you are creating here, my lovely friend. ✨

There’s my precious Owl! It is a blessing to see you love 🙂
Friend, I so understand about priorities. A couple of bloggers and I have agreed that since none of these posts expire, we have all the time we need to catch up.
I pray that you will have all the peace, love and strength that you need while you’re in that blender trying to care for others.
I’ve been there and it literally almost killed me.
Eckhart Tolle helped me a lot 🙂
YAAAASSSS!
So, so, so therapeutic 💋💖🙏🏾

…also Lady G, I don’t know if you saw that film ‘Loving’, but the picture of your grandparents, reminds me of that film and the end of the film when they showed the picture of the actual people on whom the film was based. If you ever see it ,you must tell me if it evokes the same feeling for you! 🙂

I agree so much with what Ron had to say – and I’m not even family! I wanted to cry for some inexplicable reason as I started reading. Maybe it’s a family thing: when you get to a certain age, it seems to be imperative to know more about them and where you come from. Sadly for a lot of us, by the time we realise we want to know, many of those people who we could ask are gone. It’s great that you’ve been able to tend your ‘flowering vine’ while the sun still shines and share the stories of those ‘blooms’ Lady G. This was a lovely and inspiring post!

Awww!!!! Thanks M’Lady! I too think it is sad that we often wait too late before we try to learn more about our past.
That’s the very reason why we do this series so that our children will know about our family.
I so appreciate all of your kind words and observations about this series!
You are a doll 💋

Thanks for the Memories! I am glad that we all got to spend time with our grandparents and each of us has many memories in our own way.
Me, I enjoyed walking around in the back yard and going in the storage house looking around to see what I could pull out to play with. Granddaddy had so many interesting things in the storehouse.
Mother always had vanilla wafers at her house and I couldn’t wait to get there so I could eat vanilla wafers and sit in the swing on the front porch and we would play “Cars”–All the cars that go up the hill were mine and all the cars that came down the hill were hers.
I am glad at least one of my children got to spend time with them and she also has great memories of them in their home in Montgomery.

Hey Cuz!
Thank you my love 🙂
I remember playing around the storehouse but I was always afraid to go too far LOL!!! I can remember standing there talking to Granddaddy when he was tinkering around. I’d ask about the ‘olden days.’

Do you remember all of those preserves that he kept of his Mother’s? Those things were 20 years old, at least, but he never wanted to let them go because they reminded him of her.

Boy I remember those Nillas and all of us sitting on the swing watching the cars go by.
I used to think that the world ended over the hill of West Washington Street 🙂 LOL!!!
I am glad that he did get to see my son before he died and that I captured it.
I know that your oldest daughter grew very close to him.
Thanks for commenting Cuz!

He sounds a giant of a real, proper, solid-gold man.
This is an important work you are doing here Gwin; your family is now out there and belongs to history that people of the future will be able to look back on.
Best wishes to you and Ron.
Roger

It is always a pleasure to read your family history. As I have often said in the past, you should consider making it a book that can eventually become a movie. Genealogy is fascinating and in the near future I would love to take the DNA test. Keep regaling us with your tales, Lady G & Ron!

Wow! Your story touched me, specially your description of your grandfather – what he sweetheart, he was, sounds like! Oh, i must comment on this: his dad was white – Bob? That has to be the whitest name ever, no? Are there any black Bobs? lol Mind you, there of course was Robert Johnson the late great blues singer – but was he ever called *BOB*? Like, NO!! lolol Anyway i’ll give this a better look when i have a chance but must move on at the moment. So many blogs! So little time! 😀 xoxox

Fabulous! I can see it clearly now! But I have so many more questions, purely out of curiosity. Such as… besides Mother and Leroy and Ma and Pa, did anyone get married for love? And I’m kind of thinking that the men in the south were not so… gentlemanly? Like some of your relatives were treated as… objects. Sorry, I know I’m being naive. Perhaps I should take my nose out of the murder mysteries and read a couple of history books… Which is one of the reasons you two need to tell your story and get it into print, to help naive people like myself understand.

No worries Paula! These are some good questions.
First, I’ve never been clear on what the relationship was between Lula and Mr. H. But I do know that my Grandfather was acknowledged as his child and spent a lot of time around his family. By the way, Lula and Mr. H were never married.
I think that the relationship between Mary and Mr. W can be traced back to slavery. Mary’s mother was likely a slave and her father was likely the slave owner. Based on information shared by one of my White cousins, it appears that Mary and her children tended to stick close to the folks that owned her family which was not unusual. Former slaves were very vulnerable so many times they’d end up working as sharecroppers for the same families that owned them. Trust me, there was very little in the way of ‘sharing.’ This went on for generations. Ron’s early stories are based on that era of our story.
As for the Southern man, there was definitely a hateful subset of men and women who were anything but kind to blacks–oh but they were very civil to each other.
That said, for the most part, there was still a strong belief and practice of taking care of family and being socially hospitable. Many of the men that I grew up with were like that…both Black and White.
I just love your questions Paula! 💖

Thank you for helping me to understand and not judging me. I was very hesitant to actually ask all that but thankfully I feel I know you well enough that you’d be okay with how… clueless… I sound at times. 🌷

I should have scrolled down then I could have posted my comment here Gwin. I e-mailed you also, I really love this web page. I was raised in Louisiana born in Shreveport and I know what Southern cooking really is. Love love, Fried chicken beans and corn bread fried catfish with hushpuppies just to mention a few.

Forgive me for coming so late to the ball. I was trying to get my lesson, as the old folk used to say.

This was an awesome post! You almost had me crying. I really loved that man.

You know. I didn’t spend as much time around them as you did, but I never thought of Granddaddy as any particular race. He just was. It didn’t strike me as odd that his hair and complexion was different than other Grandads’

Awww! I get what you mean about Granddaddy’s color. I didn’t notice it until somebody outside of the family pointed it out.
Basically, the neighbor children called us “Indians, Japanese and Whitefolks!” Ask Aunt Jet, she’ll remember.
I remember going outside talking to them and one of them asked me if I was Japanese. Note: These kids had not been exposed to Asians and were all very dark. I remembered wondering how they could think I was Japanese? You see, I had grown up with Japanese children so I knew that I looked nothing at all like a Japanese person. LOL!
They were the first to tell me Granddaddy was “White.”
Now, get on back to your lesson! LOL!
Wipe your tears my sweet and enjoy that picture!

I love family history, and seeing yours makes me want to find out even more about my own. I agree, they just don’t make men like our grandfathers. 🙂 I don’t know if it’s a Southern thing, but my granddaddy would also make sure we all had enough to eat before serving himself. And though mine has past away as well, whenever I miss him I make his favorite dinner and somehow feel like he’s there. As always, wonderful post!

Awww thanks Ellie:)
I do think that there is something to the Southern thing. But sadly, that kind of care and generosity is beginning to wane.
Hey, since you like family history like we do, maybe you could do a post where you share your Grandfather’s favorite meal; you could weave in a little bit about your relationship and what kind of man you remembered him to be. If you do, please ping me back on it! I wouldn’t want to miss it!

Mentioning your grandfather brought back an awful feeling I had the Christmas before my own father passed.
I’m glad your cousins spoke up to be counted, it would be terrible if they had allowed that section of your family be marked unknown.